Ever wondered how many litres of water a dishwasher uses during a cycle? Or whether using a dishwasher is more efficient than washing up by hand?

Bosch have created this simple video which shows exactly how water efficient their dishwashers are – you’ll be amazed by the results.

Some dishwashers, like those featuring Bosch’s ActiveWater technology, use as little as 6.5 litres of water in a cycle. If you washed the same amount of crockery, cutlery, pots and pans in the sink, you’d need to fill a bowl multiple times to do the same job.

Dishwashers are energy efficient, too. The electricity costs an average of just 14p per cycle*.

It’s a common misconception that dishwashers fill up with water, but in reality there’s just a small amount at the bottom of the machine. This is much hotter than your hands could bear in the sink – all the better for killing germs – and is sprayed on the dishes at high pressure to get them sparkling clean.

Christmas is all about spending time with family and enjoying a few creature comforts, but it can be difficult to relax if you’re worrying about cooking. The key to the perfect Christmas dinner is good planning and lots of help (or you could just cheat).

Food preparation

With Christmas food it’s madness to do everything on the day. Christmas cake needs to be made weeks in advance, and you can make cranberry sauce beforehand, storing it in a jar in the fridge. Wash and prepare your veg the day before and keep it in water overnight (including the potatoes). Even bread sauce will keep for a few days before being reheated come Christmas. If you do as much as you can in advance, the only big jobs on the day will be cooking the turkey and the roast potatoes.

If this still sounds too much, you can always get family members to help. If they’re coming over on the day, they can always cook some vegetables or prepare a dessert to bring with them. Or buy essentials like cranberry and bread sauces, stuffing, Yorkshire puds and gravy, rather than making them yourself.

Get Your Pans in Order

Planning ahead also means you’ll need fewer pans on the hob at once. Even so, you’ll probably want to rehearse where everything will go before Christmas comes. There’s nothing worse than finding you’re short of hob space or can’t fit the potatoes in the oven. Having a double oven is a definite advantage. Your potatoes need a dry atmosphere to crisp up, but you want your turkey moist and succulent, so keeping them separate will help.

Cook Less

You can also plan the menu to give you less work to begin with. If you want to serve potatoes cooked three different ways, a starter and an array of desserts, everything will take longer to prepare and you’ll have trouble fitting it in the oven. So pare things down and simplify. It’s also important you cook a sensible amount so you won’t be eating Turkey sandwiches until February. Having said that, take your guests’ dietary requirements into account. Vegetarians and people with intolerances and allergies all need catering for.

Practice

The absolute best training for Christmas is to cook a roast every Sunday for the rest of the year – then the potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and meat won’t worry you at all. It might be too late for this year, but there’s no harm sticking with something familiar for Christmas dinner. Turkey is traditional, but you could always cook a joint or chicken if that’s what you’re used to. It’s better to have another meat cooked well than turkey cooked badly: just make sure there’s enough for everyone.

Washing Up

Once the meal’s over, the last thing you want to do is wash up. So don’t. If you’ve got family round, get them (or the kids) to help, and put as much as you can in the dishwasher. Most dishwashers will take around 12 place settings if loaded correctly, and slimline designs will usually hold 9. Leave large pots and pans to soak – you can do them later.

At the end of the day, all that matters is enjoying a day with your family. Everything else is just gravy.

If you want more hob, oven or dishwasher space this Christmas, check out our online store. We have a range of exclusive Blomberg products, plus cookers and appliances from other top brands like Bosch, Beko and Zanussi. Built in designs can make your kitchen really special, so pop one on your Christmas list.

Euronics stores are all Independent Electrical Retailers, who as members of Euronics, the Largest Electrical Buying Group in Europe, join forces to create heavyweight buying power. With 30 Member countries across Europe and 11,000 specialist stores and branches, reaching 600 million consumers, every agent in each country is a specialist in the field of Electrical goods.